Papa's Bell
Jeanne Little
Fairhope, Ala.
In the early 1920s, Papa, now on the board of commissioners for the county, bought 100 mules and hired men to build "the good roads," as the early red clay county roads were called. In the late 1920s, Papa took his growing family to the Delta to farm the fertile cotton land.
The first cotton crop in the Delta was bountiful, and the price of cotton was high. But the next year was poor. He swapped the mules for dairy cows. The next year after that came the "1927 Flood." The Mississippi River flooded 1,100 miles along its banks "from the Gulf to Cairo." Mother remembers Papa had to get his dairy cows onto high ground amid rising waters and pouring rain to load them into boxcars and ship them to Winston County.
Papa later sold the cows and opened a creamery back in Louisville. Hardly anyone had a chance to take a breath before the 1929 stock market "crash." After contending with an illness that lasted several months, Papa returned to Leland and raised tomatoes and peas for the hotel restaurant in the mornings in his "patch" on Deer Creek.
source : cottonfarming
Jeanne Little
Fairhope, Ala.
In the early 1920s, Papa, now on the board of commissioners for the county, bought 100 mules and hired men to build "the good roads," as the early red clay county roads were called. In the late 1920s, Papa took his growing family to the Delta to farm the fertile cotton land.
The first cotton crop in the Delta was bountiful, and the price of cotton was high. But the next year was poor. He swapped the mules for dairy cows. The next year after that came the "1927 Flood." The Mississippi River flooded 1,100 miles along its banks "from the Gulf to Cairo." Mother remembers Papa had to get his dairy cows onto high ground amid rising waters and pouring rain to load them into boxcars and ship them to Winston County.
Papa later sold the cows and opened a creamery back in Louisville. Hardly anyone had a chance to take a breath before the 1929 stock market "crash." After contending with an illness that lasted several months, Papa returned to Leland and raised tomatoes and peas for the hotel restaurant in the mornings in his "patch" on Deer Creek.
source : cottonfarming
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